“Henry Alford is an impossibly funny writer. This book is a droll collection of dance-related meet-ups and experiences…that coalesce into a memoir of self-discovery.” (New York Magazine)

“Alford seamlessly interweaves heartwarming and hilarious anecdotes about his deep dive into all things dance…Alford is a master of pulling the heartstrings, but in a positive, celebratory way.” (Misty Copeland in the New York Times Book Review)

“With new insight and Alford’s trademark humor, Alford offers this cultural history to show how dance so expertly expresses the human experience.” (“8 New Theater Books You Need to Read This Summer”, Playbill)

“You’ll be laughing and tearing up at the same time. Read it before the heart-tugging film version does a tango with Oscar.” (July Book of the Month, Broadway Direct)

“He wholeheartedly illustrates the wisdom that shimmers at the heart of his book: “Hobbies are hope.”” (Newsday)

I have a piece in this week’s New Yorker in which I try to find the most pampered backyard chicken in Silicon Valley. (Why? Because a recent Washington Post article stated that, in Silicon Valley, having a pimped-out chicken coop brimming over with heritage breeds is “an eco-conscious humblebrag on par with driving a Tesla.”) Meet Chewbacca, Gwynnie, Marjo, and Betty.

For a segment on the great public radio show Studio 360, I took the uncleanest person I know (comedian Dave Hill) to an exhibition of art made solely from dust, dirt, and smog. Listen here. Huge thanks to producers Sarah Lilley, David Krasnow, and, of course, the hilarious Mr. Hill.

The new fitness app Sweatcoin measures your footfalls and then rewards you with the app’s own digital currency (called, no surprise, sweatcoins). Would it be possible to turn sweatcoins into cold, hard cash? I endeavored to find out. My story in this week’s New Yorker.

Here’s a story I did for the New York Times about a bestselling book in Japan that promises–through the magic of thigh-based jiggling–to have you doing the splits in a month’s time. The book was written by a yoga teacher in Osaka, Japan who’s been dubbed The Queen of the Splits. (One reader responded on the Times’s website, “Next month in the New York Times: ‘A Sharp Spike in Groin Injuries Seen in Emergency Rooms Across the Country.'”)